REVIEW

Pizza snobs beware: what you will find at Pizza Perfect in Trucksville, PA, and at similar pizza specialists in the region, requires you to compartmentalize everything you think you know about what makes great pizza and what constitutes inferior pizza. In other words, enter these doors with an open mind and a LAF spirit.

Onions are pretty integral to the local pizza style. In fact, onions are included by default; if you don’t want them you have to specify that. Nonetheless, these two cuts have no onions.

Pizza here is sold by the cut, not slice, and it has a superficial resemblance to the bargain-basement rectangles found in your local grocer’s freezer case, but don’t be deceived by appearances. Tasting is believing; this stuff is wonderful. Each pizzeria in the region puts their own spin on the local style, and we’d say Pizza Perfect is notable for the bottom of the crust, practically fried, oily and crisp. There’s little Italian character to these pizzas. What you’ll find instead is hefty, oniony, cheesy (if you get extra cheese) American bar food satisfaction.

Unless you live in the area, it’s likely you’ve never had pizza anywhere that resembles the Sicilian-style pies from Pizza Perfect.

Pizza Perfect falls into that beloved sub-genre of Pennsylvania/New York cuisine, the Family Tavern. It’s a bar, alright, but one where the food is upfront. We spied most of the other customers eating their cuts as part of a multi-course feast that included the likes of wings, fried mushrooms, and sandwiches, but we did see one family of four with a monomaniacal square tray of assorted cuts that must have been about 12 cuts by 4 cuts in size!

Note to root beer aficionado’s: Pizza Perfect carries the Hank’s line of bottled soft drinks, from Philadelphia. Their vanilla’d root beer is, in our opinion, one of the best.

So? Is it as good as Pepe’s in New Haven, or Totonno’s in Coney Island? That misses the point. Is this a unique, regional food style? Does it taste good? Will you have fun? The answer to those questions is: you bet!